Travel Terms

Most people need a vacation….a time away from the daily grind and routine people, places and projects. This can be near-by or far-away, in isolation or with others, active or sedentary, rustic or all-inclusive.

Most people benefit from tourism…..visiting  important and iconic sites, sometimes in remote and idyllic locations, but more often found at venues over-crowded with other tourists and groups of tourists following guides hoisting flags aloft and who stop to explain the highlights of each attraction.

I have enjoyed and still do appreciate getting away and seeing the sites, but that is not all I seek from travel in retirement. I now plan longer trips, at a slower pace, to more distant places. I wander more intentionally at some times, and with no purpose whatsover at other times. I like to grocery shop, cook and eat in.  I like to have morning coffee at the same local place several days in a row, and I try to discern the patterns and exceptions. I like to walk neighborhoods and ride local public transportation. I like to struggle with the local currency and a few words of the local langage.

I read more about our destinations — before, during and after each journey; and without the need to rush back into the rat race, I reflect more.

I enjoy fine accommodations and dining when I travel, but I realize luxury is the enemy of true travel, for it tends to interfere with observation and serendipity. I tend to avoid group tours, large-ship cruises and all-inclusive resorts because they impose obstacles to the opportunity to experience problems and the kindness of strangers, which we have found in every country, from young and old, male and female, English-speakers and those with whom we communicated through hand signals and pantomime.

I think, for example, of the young German couple who stopped to help replace a blown tire after a lorry drove our rental car off a narrow twisting country road in Scotland, and of the conversation about Scottish and US politics in which we engaged with employees of the service station where our damaged tire was repaired….turns out  we were in the county where Donald Trump’s ancestors lived.

I think also of the recently retired Swedish couple who helped us find an alternative when our train from Copenhagen to Hamburg broke down; and the several hours of conversation which revealed shared beliefs about immigrant and refugee policy debates in our respective nations.

I admire those who incorporate learning and/or serving within their travel.  Some immerse themselves in language learning; others in building schools, churches or health facilities; still others use their precious days-off from their jobs to rush in and help after devasting natural disasters strike around our nation and world. None of these experiences is my favorite form of journey, but each is truly “travel” in the sense that it removes a person not just in terms of place, but also in terms of perspective and pressing personal agenda.

JER